Allow me meanwhile to refresh your memory with an old French
proverb, "Ce qui est differe n'est pas perdu" [What is put off is
not given up], and give me the hope that soon after my return to
Weymar we may occupy ourselves seriously with the performance of
your "Faust."...
Hearty greetings to your dear wife, and believe me yours ever
most sincerely,
F. Liszt Weymar July 27th, 1849
62. To Robert Schumann
[autograph in the Royal Library in Berlin]
Dear Friend,
A summons which cannot be put off obliges me to be present at the
Goethe Festival here on the 28th of August, and to undertake the
direction of the musical part.
My first step is naturally to beg you to be so good as to send us
soon the score of your "Faust." If you should be able to spare
any of the voice or orchestral parts it would be a saving of time
to us; but if not we shall willingly submit to getting the parts
copied out as quickly as possible.
Kindly excuse me, dear friend, for the manner in which this
letter contradicts my last. I am very seldom guilty in such a
way, but in this case it does not lie in me, but in the
particulars of the matter itself.
For the rest I can assure you that your "Faust" shall be studied
with the utmost sympathy and accuracy by the orchestra and
chorus.
